Denton players and UNT

Son of Spiriki · January 13, 2023

On 1/11/2023 at 7:23 PM, El Paso Eagle said:

What do we need to do to get Denton, and former Denton players to stay/come home? I know the easy answer is to win, but even when we have ad good teams we don't seem to get much interest. Hopefully this new staff can change this.

Winning may attract a few back, but we're not going to get most of them back. I can't speak for prior generations of Denton ISD alums nor generations since I graduated, but I can tell you conclusively that, for my generation of DHS grads, folks who had athletic scholarship opportunities to get out of town took them and never looked back.

It had nothing to do with UNT winning or losing; it had everything to do with wanting to get out of Denton and go live somewhere else/see somewhere else for a few years on someone else's dime. I've said this in other threads, but it bears repeating: for a lot of these young people, this is their best...and possibly last...opportunity to go forth and see the world before they start their post-collegiate adult lives.

Yes, we have a ton of local talent at BHS, DHS, GHS, and RHS. Just because it's local talent doesn't mean that it's ours to lose.

What I'd prefer to see us do is go harder after regional talent in the portal. We're doing that, and it's netted us some solid players. I think that would be a more fruitful approach than to try to repeal the laws of nature and keep or lure Denton talent.

DeepGreen · January 13, 2023

18 minutes ago, Son of Spiriki said:

but it bears repeating: for a lot of these young people, this is their best...and possibly last...opportunity to go forth and see the world before they start their post-collegiate adult lives.

Join a branch of the military and see the world. The experience will make men out of boys.

UNTLifer · January 14, 2023

6 hours ago, rojomojo said:

This is the entire point I have been trying to make for the past 2 months

We have greater needs.

greenminer · January 14, 2023

Mike Jackson · January 15, 2023

On 1/11/2023 at 9:31 PM, NT93 said:

Would be interesting to see how many hometown kids stay in their college town. Denton-UNT, Austin-UT, Lubbock-TT, etc. Lots of variables, but are our numbers any worse than other schools?

Yes I think this is overblown but we DON’T WIN. Since our return to FBS we are below 0.500 against FBS competition. The time we have even a modestly good run of 3 years, it was in the old really bad Sun Belt. And during that Sun Belt run our out of conference record was bad.

Graddean · January 15, 2023

Of course, we would like to get the good athletes from Denton. We need to remember, however, we are the University of North Texas not the University of Denton. SOC, McKinney, etc. all fall into North Texas.

Matt from A700 · January 16, 2023

Once they realize the college town they choose has nothing worthy to New York Sub Hub, they'll be back.

GrayEagle · January 18, 2023

I believe that the main reason that Denton ISD's best players do not stay in Denton is that they are looking for a better conference (than CUSA) and much more of a winning record. It's possible that the move to the AAC will cause a few more to stay here; especially if it is accompanied with a winning record. Our CUSA years winning record was roughly .500 but if we can raise our winning percentage to around .700 or better then I believe we'll see more of the better players staying home.

UNT18Grad · January 18, 2023

Kaedric Cobbs has torn his ACL twice in three years at UTSA so I don't think it's fair to judge his performance to this point as something we were glad to miss out on. Was competing for the starting RB job prior to this season so just had some unfortunate luck that could have happened anywhere.

Agree with others on here though, kids who have the opportunity to go off and experience a new city or state are often going to do so when the alternative is going to college 10 minutes from where you grew up.

UNTLifer · January 18, 2023

1 hour ago, UNT18Grad said:

Kaedric Cobbs has torn his ACL twice in three years at UTSA so I don't think it's fair to judge his performance to this point as something we were glad to miss out on. Was competing for the starting RB job prior to this season so just had some unfortunate luck that could have happened anywhere.

Agree with others on here though, kids who have the opportunity to go off and experience a new city or state are often going to do so when the alternative is going to college 10 minutes from where you grew up.

That’s what he gets for signing with utsa.

j/k. I don’t wish injuries on anyone. Hope he recovers and has a great career minus the games against us.

Mike Jackson · January 18, 2023

On 1/11/2023 at 10:38 PM, Cr1028 said:

UT - 14 from Austin (Pop. 944,658)
Tech - 5 from Lubbock (Pop. 255,537)
UTSA - 13 from San Antonio (Pop. 1,434,540)
Houston - 13 from Houston (Pop. 2,293,288)
UTEP - 19 from El Paso (Pop. 676,395)

Denton - Population 139,704

And all those programs except UTEP and UNT are above 0.500 vs FBS competition. Also UTEP is the only FBS school within Texas that is over a 5 hour drive to get to any other FBS school. So if you are kid that wants to stay in state but from El Paso logistically it makes sense to stay there unless the P5 schools are interested in you.

We make a bunch of bad comparisons on this board not grasping how bad this program has been for most of its time back at the FBS. I believe UNT occurs to Dentom recruits as that tomboyish girl you never thought was cute growing up. Now all the sudden she put on a dress poorly applies some makeup and expect you to treat her like homecoming queen just because she expressed some interest in you. 😂. I am Denton native and athletics were the last thing on my mind when I decided to come back to Denton and continue my education after the Army. It was a nice bonus seeing FBS level football and Div I Basketball for "free" . Luckily for me they started winning just enough to be entertaining during that time. Otherwise I would be nearly as invested today as I am now.

Edited January 18, 2023 by Mike Jackson